“Trina Robbins, the San Francisco-based, self-described comics ‘herstorian’ has championed the artist in the form of a new book, The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley’s Cartoons, 1913-1940. This sumptuously designed, beautifully printed hardcover book has recently been published by Fantagraphics.

The Brinkley Girls features an informative introduction by Robbins, as well as a sampling of Brinkley’s exquisitely colored art dating from before the First World War to just before America’s entry in the Second World War.

Brinkley’s snappy flapper comics from the 1920s, and her 1937 pulp magazine-inspired Heroines of Today are also depicted. These later works show a distinct evolution in Brinkley’s style.

A lot of the work found in The Brinkley Girls might be thought of as pretty, or merely pretty. However, Robbins makes a case for Brinkley as more than just a drawer of pretty faces. Robbins suggests that beneath the surface was a feminist struggling against the artistic and social conventions of her time.”